FACTBOX-Mexico energy reform debate

Compiled from Reuters stories, Mexican newspaper reports,
television and radio.

** With Congress only open for three more weeks, the ruling
National Action Party, or PAN, is expected to present a reform
bill on Wednesday or Thursday, after weeks of talks in the
Senate energy committee failed to reach a multiparty
consensus.

** PAN Sen. Gustavo Madero and party leader German Martinez
say the proposal will not include a controversial clause to
allow risk-sharing contracts in oil. The idea was central to a
government plan to shore up flagging oil output and reserves
but hit opposition from left-wing and centrist lawmakers.

** In a flurry of activity in government corridors,
Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino met ruling party
legislators, but Energy Minister Georgina Kessel canceled a
meeting with lower house speaker Ruth Zavaleta, of the
left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD.

** Sen. Francisco Labastida, of the centrist Institutional
Revolutionary Party, or PRI, tells reporters at the Senate he
sees it "very difficult" for an energy reform proposal to be
passed before Congress winds up on April 30.

** With it looking less likely a reform will lead to
private partnerships in deep-sea oil, state oil monopoly
Pemex's exploration and production chief Carlos Morales says
Mexico will need to diversify and look at shallow as well as
deepwater oil.

** The PRD halts vote-counting and declares no result to
its March 16 leadership election, leaving a dispute simmering
between a candidate keen to debate energy reform in Congress
and a more radical rival seen backing street protests.

** Kessel says an energy reform could improve productivity
among Pemex's workforce, and PAN senators say allowing private
investment in refining could allow Mexico to reduce fuel
imports and eventually become a net exporter of gasoline.
(Reporting by Catherine Bremer and Miguel Angel Gutierrez)

DUBAI, Dec 9 Gulf Arab states that have funded
and armed the rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad are not yet ready to give up on aiding the insurgency,
even as the rebels seem headed for defeat.

ACCRA, Dec 9 Ghana's main opposition leader,
Nana Akufo-Addo, has won the West African country's presidential
election with an absolute majority over President John Mahama,
two influential private radio stations said on Friday.

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